Abbott’s priorities lingering in Austin
‘Bathroom bill’, other legislation dominate session to halfway mark
Last week, the Texas Legislature passed the halfway mark of its 85th session, leaving two months to get bills through both chambers and to the governor’s desk before they leave Austin.
At the start of the session in January, Gov. Greg Abbott listed four emergency items — ethics reform, a Child Protective Services overhaul, preparing Texas for a Constitutional convention and banning so-called “sanctuary cities” — which lawmakers could consider in an expedited manner.
The Senate since has passed bills dealing with all of Abbott’s re- quests, but the House has gotten off to a slower start. To date, House lawmakers have passed two measures aimed at reforming CPS, while the other items remain in committees.
Legislators also must craft a multi-billion dollar state budget and attend to other bills that Abbott did not mention but they want to champion.
Given that the House’s composition is roughly five times larger than the Senate’s, the lower chamber’s process can take longer than its legislative counterpart. The institutional differences between the Senate and House, particularly the pace of each chamber’s work, have become a stick-
ing point this session.
Additionally, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, and House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, are engaged in an increasing public fight, stemming from the speaker’s lack of enthusiasm for Patrick’s muchchampioned bill regarding who should use which bathrooms in public buildings and schools.
Personalities aside, here at a glance is where the big legislative issues stand: Bathroom access
A priority of Patrick’s, Senate Bill 6, the so-called “bathroom bill” would require people to use bathrooms in public schools and colleges and government buildings that correspond to their “biological sex” as listed on their birth certificates. It also would prohibit local jurisdictions, including cities and counties, from adopting anti-discrimination ordinances permitting transgender people to use public bathrooms that match their gender identities. It has set off a pitched fight with House leaders who have dismissed the bill as a waste of time and argued it would damage the Texas economy, a claim that Senate supporters refute. SB6, dubbed the Texas Privacy Act by its sponsor, GOP Sen. Lois Kolkhorst of Brenham, passed the Senate March 15 by a 21-10 vote. Sanctuary cities
Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, has pushed through another major priority of Abbott: Senate Bill 4, the so-called “sanctuary cities” bill. At issue is whether local law enforcement should honor every federal immigration request by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold on to immigrants in the country illegally until federal officials give further instructions or take them into custody. As noted by several of the bill’s opponents, the decision to honor ICE requests, known as detainers, is voluntary.
The bill also would ban local law enforcement agencies from enacting policies prohibiting officers from asking about someone’s immigration status if they have been stopped with probable cause. Child protection
Lawmakers began the session with promises to address chronic issues facing Texas’ child protective system, which include children sleeping in state offices and thousands of abused or neglected children going unchecked for months. Abbott made it a priority item, allowing legislators to consider and pass legislation in an expedited manner. Both chambers passed major reform bills in early March, and they now await consideration by the other.
House Bill 4 would allow grandparents or other relatives to be eligible for state aid if they take care of neglected kids through the Department of Family and Protective Services’ kinship program. House Bill 5 would make DFPS a standalone agency outside the auspices of the mammoth Health and Human Services Commission. The upper chamber took a different approach, with Senate Bill 11, which would allow private community-based care programs to take over some foster care and kinship cases. Public education
The House is working on its own billion-dollar attempt to change how much state money goes to school districts. Rep. Dan Huberty, the chairman of the House Public Education Committee, sponsored House Bill 21, which would boost education spending by $1.6 billion. It would result in more perpupil funding for districts and would add more money for students diagnosed with dyslexia. The committee has not voted on the bill, which won praise from many education leaders. Huberty said after an initial March 7 hearing it was a good start but needed more work. ‘School choice’
After failed attempts to get a “school choice” bill to Abbott’s desk last session, Senate Education Committee Chairman Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, introduced Senate Bill 3 this year. It would establish educational savings accounts and tax credit scholarships to fund costs associated with parents moving their children from traditional public schools to private or parochial schools. The Senate committee voted 7-3 on March 23 to send the bill the full chamber. The House has met the proposal with fierce and bipartisan opposition, arguing that the Senate’s efforts eventually would take money from cash-strapped public schools. Ethics
Another of Abbott’s emergency items is ethics reform, which Sen. Van Taylor, R-Plano, has pushed with Senate Bill 14. The bill would force elected officials to disclose their government contracts, bar former legislators from immediately becoming lobbyists and revoke pensions for politicians convicted of felonies. On Feb. 7, the Senate voted unanimously to send the bill to the House, where it awaits a committee hearing. State budget
A two-year state budget is the only bill lawmakers must pass, and the effort to do that this year is fraught with Republican infighting between the House and Senate over who has the more responsible proposal. At the start of the session, the Texas comptroller projected lawmakers will have about $104 billion to spend over the next two years. On March 22, the Senate Finance Committee approved a $106.3 billion budget plan that is expected to head to the Senate floor this week. To bring the Senate proposal below the comptroller’s estimate, the committee backed a fiscal maneuver that Straus slammed as “counting money twice in order to balance the budget.” Another major point of contention with the House, which initially proposed a $108.9 billion spending plan, is whether lawmakers should tap the state’s Rainy Day Fund to balance the budget. House leaders say yes, but their counterparts in Senate disagree. Abortion
Texas lawmakers are considering a host of bills this session that would continue their efforts to rollback abortion rights. On March 15, the upper chamber passed Senate Bill 8 to restrict the use of fetal tissue from elective abortions, and Senate Bill 415 to bar so-called ‘dismemberment abortions’ in the state. The House has held preliminary hearings on the legislation. Convention of states
Responding to Abbott’s call, the Senate in a partyline vote in March passed a resolution to convene a firstever convention of states to amend the Constitution. Senate Joint Resolution 2 limits proposed constitutional changes to three categories: putting term limits on federal lawmakers, curbing the power and jurisdiction of the federal government and imposing fiscal restraints on Washington. Accompanying legislation in the Senate also sets the qualifications for delegates and imposed penalties for those who go beyond the items prescribed in the resolution. The House has yet to schedule a committee hearing on the issue.